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I got one of these. That is a stock photo, and mine is in rougher shape than that. Like the photo mine doesn't have the retention strap and my blade is in worse condition. my scales are in great condition.
Whoever it was issued to didn't take care in sharpening and there are deep gouges in the blade. It is sharp but could be sharper. I never touched it.
Interesting oral history. (Forgive any inaccuracies)
With the absence of "Blood and Honor" etching on the blade it was made sometime after 1942. It was "liberated" in 44 by my Uncle Tony, a medic with the 26th "Yankee division".
The YD was an activated National Gaurd division from Mass.
Tony , my dad and 3 buddies joined in 38 for the simple reason that they wanted the money paid for going to drills.
Going ashore at Normandy in the 10th wave they didn't see action until a few days later. According to them the division was on the right flank of the push to Berlin. Dec of 44 found them in Czechoslovakia when the Battle of the Bulge began. The whole division turned 90° north and pushed to relieve Bastonge
They encountered fierce fighting the whole time and when they got closer they encountered Hitler youth troops, mere boys around 14, dressed like soldiers but untrained. One kept taking inaccurate pot shots at Tony instead of running away. Reluctant to return fire and kill a kid Tony just shot close hoping he would run away. Another medic and one of the original 5 opened up on the kid with a 45 grease gun.
That's how they got the knife and my dad won it in a poker game.
Any way that a long way of asking should I leave it alone, or clean up the blade?